Set up SendGrid as a mail server for Searchie Hubs

A guide to configuring SendGrid SMTP for email delivery in your Searchie Hub

 

What can I use this for?

Setting up SendGrid as your mail server for Searchie Hubs requires you to authenticate your domain and configure SMTP for your email delivery. It is essential for ensuring the optimal deliverability of your emails. This guide walks you through the process, from authenticating your domain to verifying single email senders and setting up SMTP relay.

Procedure

To set up SendGrid as the mail server for your Searchie Hub emails, you need to do the following:

1. Authenticate your domain
2. Set up your SMTP relay
3. Configure Custom Host for your Searchie Hub's emails

Step 1: Authenticate your domain

First, log in to your SendGrid account and navigate to Settings > Sender Authentication. Click Get Started under "Authenticate Your Domain."

NOTE: If you are using Cloudflare, you may encounter restrictions on enabling the Proxy status option for SendGrid records. In these situations, it's okay to turn this setting off for the records. 

Next, follow the instructions for adding your domain and modifying your DNS records. You can follow this guide on how to set up domain authentication. Once done, click Verify to ensure your DNS records are updated successfully.

Note that DNS record updates may take up to 24 hours, but usually only 10-15 minutes.

After authenticating your domain, it is recommended that you verify the ownership of a single email address to use as a sender. To protect your sending reputation and to uphold legitimate sending behavior, SendGrid requires you to verify your sender identity. To proceed, click Verify a Single Sender under "Single Sender Verification."

Step 2: Set up your SMTP relay

In SendGrid, the first thing to do is to navigate to the Email API > Integration Guide and choose SMTP Relay as your setup method. After that, enter the name of your API Key and click on Create Key. You are free to use any name here.

Then, you'll be given a string of alphanumeric characters to serve as your password. You'll need this later, along with the other settings shown to you such as the SMTP server name, port numbers, and username (See Step 3). Once your settings have been updated, click Next: Verify Integration > Verify Integration.

Step 3: Configure Custom Host for your Searchie Hub's emails

Next, you must go to your Searchie Hub and enable "Custom Host" under Settings > Emails > Configuration where you will include these email settings into your Hub.

We recommend that you enter SMTP port number 587 and choose TLS encryption.

Test the configuration

Send a test email

You can go to your Searchie Audiences section and send a welcome email to a member to verify the integration.

Check email delivery

Confirm that the test email is received and verify that the email details match the configured settings.